The National's "Terrible Love" and Foals's "Spanish Sahara"

Hey, AWP was fun! Denver seems like a nice place, and I'm sure I could find something complimentary to say about each and every one of you 9,000 attendees! (Look for ohyoung9000AWPcompliments.blogspot.com tomorrow!) If you got a bookmark from me or Megan, leave us a comment or send an email -- we'd love to hear from you. Watch for an AWP retrospective post, coming soon.

In the meantime, hey, music is happening! The National, who live in Brooklyn (just like you!) and who have justly become One of The Biggest Bands in the World (on an indie, not-very-big scale!), have a new album, High Violet, coming out on May 11 on 4AD. The band's been responsible for Boxer, my favorite album of 2007, the mega-jam Alligator in 2005, and two other you-know-really-not-too-bad albums before those. They've gotten better with each release, so High Violet gives me goosebumps in anticipation at night (because I am alone, so so very alone). They premiered "Terrible Love," track number uno from the record, live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (for the record -- number of shows Jimmy Fallon has: 1; number of shows Conan O'Brien has: 0, so don't forget to write your senator!) in March.

Jimmy Fallon's hair asks, "You ready for some good music?"

Yes, Jimmy Fallon's hair, yes I am.

And lo, it is delivered. All reviews of anything The National does must have a line that references vocalist Matt Berninger's ________ baritone, and I'm going to go with "sultry," here. Vocalist Matt Berninger's sultry baritone scratches just the right spot in my inner ear, and it's nice to have it back. Berninger's on the record as a big John Ashbery fan, and I suppose that's at least somewhat on display here, especially in the opening lines: "It's a terrible love / and I'm walking with spiders /-- it's quite a company." Slightly absurd, a little funny, a touch of foreboding. I think Ashbery could get into that. In any case, the lines work with the slow build of the song's first two minutes, before The National does what they do best, bringing in an aching and pulse-pounding crescendo of a bridge. Bryan Devendorf's consistently mind-blowing drumming -- simple but inventive, creating hooks in its own right -- starts to ratchet up the stakes, but the band pulls back. Berninger uses the space to intone, "It takes an ocean not to break [drift? drift would be better, I'll tell him in workshop]," which becomes the song's refrain, gaining Importance and Meaning of Incredible, Galactic Weight as these things tend to do when repeated over and over while an awesome band plays their instruments awesomely.

When the band lets loose at the 3 minute mark, finally allowing all that energy to come coursing out, it's well worth the wait, an example in expert-level pacing and release. This album will be huge. Good work in advance, guys!





The National's hype machine is in full effect, and that's all well and good. They're one of the best bands of the decade, so word from the mouths of blogs and that girl with the keffiyeh makes perfect sense, and it's nice to see a band getting the respect and attention they deserve. Some bands don't have such a churning chorus of voices behind them, though. The UK's Foals also have a new album dropping in May -- Sub Pop will release Total Life Forever, the follow-up to 2008's Antidotes, on the 10th of that month.

Antidotes came out on the tail-end of the Bloc Party-inspired dancepunk craze (music blogging!). I think it was a big hit in the UK, though I'm still waiting for Wellingborough Rufflefeather, OYL's London correspondent, to file a report on that. Still, it didn't make big waves in the States. "Spanish Sahara," the lead single/video from the new record, signals that Foals may have read that as a sign to experiment with a new sound. No breakbeats here, no yelping vocals, no guitars that a music blogger might (just might) describe as "angular". Rather, we have Yannis Phillipakis leading his band through a field of electronic blips and falsetto musings, imploring his listener to "leave the horror here / forget the horror here". It's atmospheric, in a word, and quite successfully so. Lest you think Foals is going all "Treefingers" on you, the band comes to life at 4:07 and gives you a summer jam for your trouble.

The video, by the way, is well worth your time, featuring gorgeous cinematography courtesy of David Ma. Frozen ice swells, glacial mountainscapes, burning carcasses of some sort, and a single tear moment from Yannis Phillipakis! God save the Queen!

--Corey